No sooner is one concert over than all other projects come flooding in. I had about 8 minutes of calm after In the Memory Palace before reality hit me: A Goyishe Christmas to You! (our December show) and Invitation to the Dance (the Juilliard program, due to hit the boards in January) needed to be finished. And Manning the Canon was just about to go into rehearsal—a revival with one new song and one new cast member, and yikes, I haven’t touched the music in a year.

I’ll skip the ulcer-inducing 12-day interval and cut to the golden present: Goyishe and Invitation are pretty much programmed, and Manning the Canon is falling back into place. The gnarly spots in the music that kicked my ass last time are kicking my ass again, only not as hard. And the guys in that show are a collaborator’s dream: beautiful musicians, and men with the kind of spirits that make you think there might be a god after all. I’ve known Jesse Blumberg for a long time, and I’ve always loved the guy. But at our rehearsal the other day—as we worked up our Britten and Tchaikovsky again—I felt that we’d become one musical entity, one expressive being. We even screwed up at the same time.

Matt Boehler is a force of nature, sort of a benign tsunami; Scott Murphree sings Poulenc and Saint-Saëns exactly the way I hear them in my head—an uncannily intimate experience; and Tim McDevitt, the new guy, already knows the moves for the ensemble pieces better than the guys who created what we call the “‘ography.” He is rapidly taking possession of his solo pieces, which are going to fly high. Since Jesse and Scott haven’t rehearsed together yet, I haven’t yet seen my favorite moment—the ‘ography for the lyric “You’re Camembert!” in Cole Porter’s “You’re the Top.” (That bit is mine. Maybe I shouldn’t be admitting this.)

Cole Porter, “You’re the Top”: You’re an O’Neill drama, You’re Whistler’s mama, You’re Camembert!

Friday night we’re doing a workthrough of the whole concert and then cooking dinner together. The Friday cast dinner is by now a tradition with this show. I haven’t told Tim about the hazing ceremonies we have for new cast members. I’m sure he’ll be fine. He’s young.